Bilancio di esercizio e sostenibilità: quale intersezione dopo l'introduzione della Modernization Directive in Europa

ABSTRACT: The article aims to understand if the European companies are well representing sustainable information in Financial Statements and in Annual Reports, especially after the introduction of the Modernisation Directive. The disclosure of environmental and social issues in Annual Report requires specific caution and competence, because of the characteristics of sustainability such as the long term view, the different meaning of the boundaries (not recognized by environmental and social impacts) and the recognition and evaluation of related risks. Using the results of an empirical survey, conducted among 168 listed companies in five European countries, the study tries to find out the drivers of a better quality of sustainable information in Annual Reports. Surprisingly size and attitude to publish sustainable information on voluntary basis are not the driver of a better sustainability information in Financial Statements. On the contrary the article underlines differences in the sustainable information inside Annual Reports among countries deriving from the culture, both general community culture and managerial culture.